


In the Dark and Quiet

by Door



Series: HMS Skypilot [3]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7840393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Door/pseuds/Door
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn wakes up and finds Poe gone.</p>
<p>
  <i>They didn’t say anything, just sat watching the moons reflected on the wide surface of the river. BB-8 hummed to itself, a habit it had. After a while, Poe huffed out a breath and looked down.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“You’re not wearing any shoes,” he said.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Finn flexed his toes. He hadn’t thought about it until he’d gotten outside and hadn’t wanted to go back. “No,” he said.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Poe rested his forehead on Finn’s shoulder. “Idiot,” he said fondly.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Dark and Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this back in January, just finally cross-posting it from tumblr.

Finn wasn’t sure what had woken him, but suddenly he was awake. And cold, he realized, looking to his right and finding the other half of the bed empty. He glanced at the corner of the room where Rey’s hammock lived while she was on-planet. It wasn’t an official housing assignment, but Finn and Poe had insisted they didn’t want her sleeping on the Falcon if she didn’t have to, and they had a little window sill where she could line up her plants, neat in their pots. BB-8 reminded them when they needed watering while Rey was gone.

Rey was there now, awake in the quiet dark. She’d woken him, Finn realized, probably with a Force nudge. A light sleeper from her years on Jakku, she’d likely woken as soon as Poe had stirred. Finn looked for BB-8 and found him gone, too. He nodded at Rey. She gave him a small smile in response and closed her eyes again.

Sometimes Poe got called out of bed in the middle of the night for mission purposes, but he wasn’t as quiet getting dressed as he’d like to be, so he usually ended up waking Finn. Which was fine, Finn would rather be awake to say goodbye than sleep through it. He was well aware that–best pilot in the Resistance or not–any mission could be Poe’s last.

Anyway, Rey wouldn’t have woken him if that was the case. Finn opened Poe’s foot locker, fished out the ragged blanket at the bottom, and left the room.

The base was never completely shut down. Someone was always manning the comms, someone else monitoring the feeds for any on-planet activity, as well as the med-droids and aides on duty in the medbay. Finn was on the latter two rotations, actually. They weren’t exciting, but they were important.

As he made his way down the hall, he heard the muted humming that he knew was the deep space radar turned way the hell up because Pamich was on comm duty and she wore the headset around her neck rather than try to fit it over her hair. He could have stopped to say hi–any break in the night shift monotony was welcome–but he turned before he reached the door, heading towards the hangar.

Finn walked the hangar length, stopping only to peer into Black One’s pilot seat. It was dark and empty, like the rest of the ships he’d passed, and there was no sign of BB-8. He slipped out the side door and made his way around the building.

The new base was built into the side of a fairly steep hill. As a result, what was a two storey drop on one side of the roof was easily accessible by foot on the other. The continent they were on was choked with foliage, which effectively masked their life signs on scans, and Finn stepped carefully to avoid any roots. The hangar roof was curved, but the part of the base’s roof that wasn’t buried in the hill was flat. You could walk right across it, which Finn did once he’d come around the hangar.

He could make out their silhouettes on the far side of the building, and caught a momentary gleam in the dark that he took to be BB-8 turning its photoreceptor to face him. BB-8 make a sound Finn couldn’t interpret, and Poe’s head nodded in response. A moment later, Finn reached them.

Poe was sitting on the edge of the roof, feet dangling over the steep side. He was facing the river that lay about one klick to the east. Sunrises over the river were gorgeous, but they were still hours away from dawn. Finn shook out the blanket he’d brought, draped half over Poe’s shoulders, then settled next to him, pulling the other half over his own shoulders. Poe was shaking a little, whether from the cold or something else, Finn couldn’t tell.

They didn’t say anything, just sat watching the moons reflected on the wide surface of the river. BB-8 hummed to itself, a habit it had. After a while, Poe huffed out a breath and looked down.

“You’re not wearing any shoes,” he said.

Finn flexed his toes. He hadn’t thought about it until he’d gotten outside and hadn’t wanted to go back. “No,” he said.

Poe rested his forehead on Finn’s shoulder. “Idiot,” he said fondly.

Finn moved his hand to rest palm-up on Poe’s thigh, and Poe took it, tangling their fingers together.

Adrenaline had carried Poe through the weeks following his capture and subsequent Finn-aided escape, but the crash had come not too long after Finn had woken from his coma. Not that he’d let on to Finn about it, or Jess or General Organa or one of the Resistance’s two very capable therapists or anyone, the jerk. The nightmares were impossible to ignore once they’d started sleeping together, but Poe never seemed to want to discuss them, so they didn’t. It took one truly awful night for them to finally confront the situation. Poe had eventually consented to speak with a counselor, more for Finn’s sake than his own, but in the end the result was the same. That had been months and months ago.

The nightmares had mostly given way to insomnia, terrible in its own way, but less disturbing. Poe would spend those nights in the gym or working on Black One. Sometimes he’d wake Finn up by accident and Finn would devote himself to other means of distraction. That Poe was up here told Finn that whatever had woken him, they could lay it firmly on Kylo Ren’s doorstep.

They’d been sitting in the quiet for a long time. Poe’s hands had stopped shaking a little while ago. “Have I told you about the rathtars?” Finn finally asked. It was a long-established signal between them.

BB-8 responded, as it always did, that yes, Finn had told Poe about the rathtars many times.

Poe settled his weight against Finn’s side. “No buddy, I don’t think he has, actually.” He linked his hand more firmly with Finn’s. “Tell me about the rathtars.”

“So, Me and Rey were on Han’s ship–” he began.

They might have stayed up there till sunrise, if it hadn’t started to rain. BB-8 whistled unhappily, so Poe and Finn clamored to their feet. They kept Poe’s blanket, a long-ago gift from his father, around their shoulders as they slowly made their way down the hill. The mud on Finn’s bare feet had mostly come off on its own by the time they reached their quarters.

Rey was awake, which didn’t surprise Finn. She liked to watch the rain. She smiled sleepily at them when they walked in. “The moons alright?” It was another signal.

“Still up there,” Poe answered, spreading the damp blanket overtop of their coverlet. BB-8 rolled into its corner and dimmed its lights, indicating it had settled into low-power mode.

“That’s good,” Rey said, voice quiet. Her hair was loose around her shoulders. Finn walked to her hammock, bent down, and kissed her temple. “Will you open the window?” She asked him.

“Sure,” he said. He reached up and cracked the top of the window, so her plants could enjoy the moisture in the air.

By the time he turned back, Poe had shed his shoes and was sitting on the edge of their bed, expression a little blank. Finn sat next to him and nudged him until he’d climbed under the blankets. Poe settled sort of in the middle, so Finn lay right up against him, putting a leg between his and sliding his arms so one was under Poe’s pillow and the other was around his torso. Poe shuffled down until his nose rested in the hollow of Finn’s neck, then rested his hand on the long scar that went down Finn’s back. He did that sometimes. Finn didn’t mind it.

Poe’s breathing lengthened until Finn was sure he was asleep, head buried between the blankets and Finn’s chest, and Finn drifted off, listening to the sound of the rain.

**Author's Note:**

> Rey can't hear the rain when she's in her bunk on the Falcon so sometimes she sleeps in the cockpit. She likes leafy plants and thunderstorms.
> 
> This was inspired by 2 pieces of fanart: [this comic](http://kaciart.tumblr.com/post/138365275968), and [this piece](http://iamthespacecadet.tumblr.com/post/138392813581/green-and-growing-things%22).


End file.
